Promotions and Pseudonyms
by Noxbait
Summary: Team Story. Just a very short snippit. During an early Season 1 mission gone wrong, there are some unexpected shifts in rank among the members of SG1...


_Just a short little moment in early Season 1. Not much to it, but hopefully it is a fun little read. :)_

* * *

"Carter. Sit-rep."

Sam felt her heart leap into her throat as she heard the crackle of the radio. The good thing about the unexpected interruption was that the two thugs stopped shouting at her and punching Daniel in the ribs. She was still amazed that he, and she herself, had managed to keep their mouths shut so far. She was clinging to her well-practiced military training to keep from giving them everything they wanted…and stopping their vicious blows.

Silence reigned for a moment after the radio had interrupted everything. The two men looked at one another, then the one known as Trunmar reached for the pile of equipment, pulling up the radio even as it crackled again.

"Carter? Daniel? Report."

Trunmar stared at the radio in confusion. Sam could tell the Colonel was in a hurry and would go from tense to three alarms in a matter of seconds. How could she warn him? Trunmar turned to Daniel. Sam couldn't help cursing yet another backward world where women were obviously seen as nothing more than empty headed slaves. She held her breath as she saw Daniel take a deep breath. His voice was very soft when he spoke.

"They will come here and kill you if you don't let me answer him."

"You lie."

"No. No, I don't. I can tell them to leave, but you _have _to let me talk now." Sam could tell he was in pain from his breathless, clipped words, tinged with panic. "Push the button and let me talk or they will come back and kill you."

Trunmar motioned to his partner who grabbed Sam from behind and put his blade to her throat. Sam held very still and started praying. Trunmar held the radio out and said, "Tell them to leave. You try to warn them, she dies."

"Fine." Daniel nodded, fear gripping his heart as he locked eyes briefly with Sam. He really hoped he knew what he was doing. Jack's very irritated and now growing concerned voice rang out again and finally Trunmar pushed the button.

"Jack. Sorry, we were busy. Look, the Major and I have found some hieroglyphs here, very similar to the ones we found on Simarka. I've decided we're going to take a week or so to catalogue things here. I want you and..." Daniel froze, trying to find his creative streak again. "And Sergeant Murray to return to base. We'll rejoin you when we're finished."

Trunmar took his finger off the button as Daniel nodded. He almost smiled, picturing Jack's reaction to his words. He held his breath, hoping that Jack would take the hint. After a few seconds of silence, he heard Jack's voice again.

"So, you and Major Carter are staying put. You need any supplies?"

Daniel nodded and Trunmar pushed the button again, "No, Lieutenant. We're set. You head on home. That's an order."

Jack's reply was quick and crisp, "Yes, sir."

_Message received. _He saw the second man release Sam; she looked white as a sheet, but her eyes sparkled. He smiled a very small smile and wondered how long it would be till Jack and Teal'c arrived.

* * *

Jack shook his head and checked his rifle. "Well, Teal'c, looks like we're not leaving as soon as we would've liked."

"I believe Daniel Jackson was under duress." Teal'c acknowledged as they started retracing their footsteps.

"Yup." Jack nodded, "Either that or he got smacked in the head hard." He paused, "Though I seriously doubt that. Any writing on Simarka was Mongolian, not hieroglyphics. Even smacked in the head, he'd've gotten that one right."

"Indeed."

"I knew it was a bad idea to come to this neighborhood." Jack remarked under his breath as they took off at a run.

* * *

"Sam." Daniel whispered, nudging her with his shoulder. "Come on, stay with me."

Her head was lolling on his shoulder as he wrestled again with the ropes around his wrists. They hadn't had the chance to bind up the bleeding wound on her leg where Trunmar had managed to knife her during the initial fight. She didn't respond to him so he looked around once more. Trunmar was currently rifling through the small vault they had uncovered in the ruins. The other officer was smoking a noxious smelling pipe of some sort and only half-heartedly keeping an eye on them. It had been an estimated 5 minutes since he'd spoken to Jack.

Their intelligence had indicated this planet was both rich with Naquadah and uninhabited. They'd been on the planet for over 8 hours when Jack had decided to take another hike around the area just to be on the safe side. Sam had remained with Daniel, digging through the ruins of an old city. They had found and opened the vault door just moments before being attacked by the two armed mercenaries. He looked down at Sam again. She'd lost consciousness right after he'd finished talking to Jack and their assailants had merely dragged her over and leaned her up against him.

Frowning, he kept an eye on their guard while trying desperately to maneuver his hands to a place where he could reach his back pocket. The attackers had not done a very practiced job of searching them and although they had taken most of their weapons, he still had his Gerber. As he twisted, he thanked Jack silently for the gift. Whatever the guard was smoking seemed to have some sort of narcotic effect because he certainly seemed to be in a happy place. Daniel didn't care one bit as long as he was too stoned to realize what he was doing. He managed to liberate the knife and slice through his bonds without losing a finger. Carefully sliding onto his knees, he gently reached behind Sam's back and freed her hands.

She jerked to awareness. He kept his hands behind his back and gently touched her hand. "Sam, easy. Shh."

"Daniel?" She whispered weakly.

"Yeah. I got our hands free."

"What are we going to do?"

"I'm going to get our zat and get us out of here." He cast a quick look at goon number two who was smiling and looking at the clouds. Their weapons were in a pile a few feet to their left.

"You think you can move?"

Sam shook her head to wake herself up a bit more and whispered, "We should wait for the Colonel and Teal'c."

"Sam, who knows how long it is going to take them to get here. And I have a bad feeling that these guys aren't going to wait much longer before..."

He stopped as Trunmar turned around and glanced at them. Daniel kept his hands behind his back and was grateful that Sam was alert enough that she was doing the same. They had only a slim advantage right at the moment and the last thing they needed was for the thugs to know they were free. Trunmar smiled slightly, casting a leering look over at Sam. Daniel bit his lip and tried to think of a way out of this situation. The men had already proven several times over that they had no compunctions about injuring or even killing them. He also had the feeling that they didn't think much of women. The way Trunmar was nodding at Sam gave Daniel the chills. He could feel Sam tense next to him and knew she would easily kill the jerk; if her leg wasn't injured and she wasn't weak from blood loss.

Deciding to try a bit of distraction to keep the man away from Sam, Daniel spoke up, "Hey, why don't you just let us go? We did the hard part; all you have to do is take the treasure."

Both men snorted and Trunmar took another step closer. "Oh, for that we give you our thanks. But there is so much we want to learn from you."

Daniel didn't like the sound of that. His ribs and jaw ached from their earlier attempts to 'learn' from him. He felt bad Sam had been stabbed, but at least they hadn't been pounding on her as well. Trunmar was taking a menacing step toward Sam and Daniel decided he wasn't going to take a chance on the man having honest intentions. Launching himself up from his knees, Daniel's shoulder drove into the man's soft gut and he heard his breath explode in a gust. Trunmar fell backwards and Daniel punched him hard in the face without thinking. Trunmar lay still in the dust.

"Daniel!" Sam's frantic voice reminded him that Trunmar wasn't the only threat.

The other thug wasn't quite so lost in his fumes as Daniel had hoped. Before he could move, the thug kicked him in the jaw sending him reeling backwards and onto the ground next to Trunmar. Drawing his gun, the man was about to shoot Daniel when Sam launched herself at him, grunting in pain from her wounded leg. She was weaker than she had realized, but she'd been strong enough at least to throw the man's aim off. The gunshots impacted a nearby tree. Sam struggled against the man, feeling herself fade and knowing she wasn't going to be able to overpower him. He grabbed her behind the neck and pushed her hard to the ground and her vision faded as she slumped in a heap.

Daniel vaguely noted Sam struggling with the man and his mind was screaming at him to get up and help her. Next to him, Trunmar was stirring. Forcing himself up, Daniel tried to ignore the fierce pounding in his head. He reached out and grabbed Trunmar's gun from his holster, bringing it up immediately to shoot the other man through the chest. The gun packed a bigger kick than Daniel had expected. The man flew several feet backwards and so did Daniel. Trunmar came up at this point and, with a scream of rage, threw himself at Daniel. Daniel brought up the gun and pulled the trigger again, but Trunmar threw himself to the side, kicking Daniel's arm.

The gun went flying and Daniel knew he had only a second to move or he would be dead. If Trunmar got on top of him, it would be all over. Rolling frantically, he tried desperately to find the gun. Giving up within a second, Daniel climbed unsteadily to his feet just as Trunmar came at him again. This time, _he_ got hit in the chest. Trunmar's head connected painfully and drove the breath out of him. Seeing stars, Daniel felt the man's thick hands around his neck. This was bad. Very bad. And not going to last very long. His hands scrabbled desperately for anything...the gun, a rock...

_His knife._

Daniel closed his left hand around his knife and brought it up with all his strength, catching Trunmar just below his right scapula. The man's hands released Daniel's neck as he shouted in agony. Daniel didn't waste a second and punched him in the face as hard as he could manage. He pushed the groaning man off and rolled to his side, dragging himself upright with difficulty. Hunting for the gun, Daniel panicked as Trunmar lifted one of their own weapons. He tore his eyes off of the thug in a desperate gamble to find the gun. While his head was down, a shot rang out and Trunmar hit the ground quite completely dead.

Daniel looked up at Teal'c. He sucked in a relieved breath and squeezed his eyes shut. "Thanks, Teal'c."

The Jaffa nodded and walked over to kneel beside him. "Are you well, Daniel Jackson?"

"Sam's hurt." He said quickly, still trying to catch his breath.

"I see that." Jack was already tending to her bleeding leg. Upon inspection, it definitely looked like a significant gash, but not as bad as it could have been. He pulled out his med kit and started cleaning it. "How long's she been out?"

Daniel rubbed his head and said, "A minute or so. This time. She saved my life."

Jack put pressure on the wound and took a cursory glance around the camp, ending with a brief assessment of Daniel who looked a bit worse for wear. "You ok?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"Oh, you know. We did all the work and these guys wanted to take all the credit. And the loot." Daniel smiled slightly.

"Uhhuh." Jack nodded, turning his attention back to Carter who was beginning to stir.

"Were these the only attackers?" Teal'c asked, his eyes continually roving the surrounding area.

"Yes."

"Sir?"

"Hi, Carter. How're you doing?" Jack smiled, finishing with the bandage on her leg.

She smiled wearily and gave him a thumbs up.

Jack sat back on his heels and nodded over at the vault. "Anything important?"

Daniel shrugged, "Actually, no."

"Really?" Jack asked, not having expected such an answer. "Nothing?"

"Some interesting stuff, of course, but nothing of real value that we need to worry about."

"So these two goons here..."

"If they hadn't tried to kill us, they could have had it all."

"Too bad for them." Jack shook his head and gently helped pull Carter into a sitting position. "Nice job sending your not so subtle message, by the way."

Daniel smiled, "It worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, although I wasn't too fond of my demotion, gotta tell you. Just who'd you tell these clowns you were?"

"General Jackson."

Jack snorted, pulling Carter to her feet. "_General_?"

"They had no context for understanding United States military rankings, Jack. I could have said anything."

"Yes, but you didn't say _anything_." Jack was amused, "You busted _me _back down to Lieutenant and gave yourself a rather amazing promotion considering you aren't even in the military. I just find that humorous, is all."

"Well, I _was _under some pressure at the time and I needed to come up with something you would catch on to. I figured I'd blown it with the reference to Simarka."

"Daniel, you really think that after all this time, I wouldn't know that the Mongols didn't use hieroglyphics?"

"Well..."

Jack smiled as he helped Carter limp down the path. It was always nice to mess with Daniel's head.

"I am most curious."

Everyone stopped and stared at Teal'c.

"About what, Teal'c?" Sam asked softly, feeling dizzy.

"I am most curious about the name _Murray._"

"Oh, well, I was just trying to throw out random bits of nonsense to hopefully let you know we were in trouble." Daniel shrugged, "It was just the first thing that came to mind."

"Really? _Murray_?" Jack shook his head, "What about Smith or Jones? At that point, I'd have gone with something common."

"Murray is an extremely common Scottish surname, Jack."

"You would know." Jack rolled his eyes.

"I believe the name to be most pleasing."

Again, everyone turned to Teal'c with expressions of amusement or confusion on their faces. The Jaffa had the slightest smile on his face and appeared quite happy.

Daniel smiled uncertainly, "Ah, well, I'm glad you like it, Teal'c."

"Indeed. I believe I should retain this pseudonym for future use."

Jack's eyebrows shot up. "Oh? You think you need a pseudonym, Teal'c?"

"Yes. Is not the name Murray more common on your world than the name Teal'c?"

Jack fought not to laugh as he saw the genuine question in Teal'c's eyes. "You have a point."

Teal'c inclined his head. "Very well. From henceforth, I shall be known as Murray when we travel throughout your world."

Daniel and Jack exchanged amused glances as Teal'c set off again, a rather pleased smile still on his face. Sam adjusted her weight and looked up at the Colonel with a michevious smile.

"Sir?"

"Yeah, Carter?"

"If Teal'c keeps his name..."

"You may not keep your promotion, _Captain._" Jack finished for her, smiling at the twinkle in her eyes. "Sorry. You're gonna have to wait awhile for that." He glanced at Daniel, "And as for you, don't expect me to be calling you _sir_ anytime soon."

Daniel grinned, "Just don't expect it from me, either."

Jack rolled his eyes, "Never do."

* * *

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